Linguistics experts asked to research in development of West Africa

Winneba (C/R), July 27, GNA - The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba Professor Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, has urged experts and intellectuals in linguistics to conduct research relevant to the development of West Africa.

Prof. Asabere-Ameyaw was closing a 10n-day summer school on documentary linguistics at the University of Education, Winneba on Saturday.

Thirty participants from Cote D'Ivoire, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Gambia, Liberia, Senegal, Togo, Chad, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Niger attended.

The event is a prelude to the 26th West African Languages Conference that would be organized at the same venue in the course of the week. It would be under the theme "Languages Documentary in Supports of West Africa Languages".

Participants were taken through ethnography in language documentation, meaning and translation in documentation, audio-recording techniques, phonetics data and analysis, sociolinguistic survey, grant application writing, general issues and contextualized linguistic practices.

Prof. Felix K. Ameka, a Ghanaian lecturer at Leiden University in Netherlands, expressed the hope that participants would transfer the knowledge they have acquired at the school to other colleagues and students at their respective countries to accelerate the growth of the sub-region. Prof. Ameka, who was leader of a 10-member resource team, presented video and recording equipment each to the participated countries for use in their documentation. He presented a copy each of a book on Journal of Africa Languages and linguistics he has written to the participants. 27 July 08